Traditional Shino: How to?
May Luk
I will have some wood firing opportunities coming up. This is 1 hour
North of NYC and a pleasant ride on the train along the Hudson River
and it is going to be nice. At any rate, I would like to think of some
glaze test for my first wood-firing outing
I would like to try to figure out the finger combing shino like Ken
Matsuzaki's wares. (http://issuu.com/powershift/docs/
matsuzaki_catalogue_online?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2%2Fskin.issuu.com
%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xmlshowFlipBtn=truelogo=www.goldmarkart.com
%2Flogo.png&logoOffsetX=10&logoOffsetY=10)
The tinyurl is: http://tinyurl.com/kmqgv6
I have read that the this type of Shino is merely Feldspar (60%-80%)
and clay (20%-40%). The Alumina is 1.1 - 1.9 and Silica is 5 - 7.9. I
am thinking of doing a series of line blends with clay (Helmer and/or
Grolleg) with Soda Spar and/or Nepheline Syenite. Does that sounds
right?
My body clay will be Standard 182 with some grog. If I want to make
the clay a bit more coarse, what is the best way to do it?
Do I make multiple sets to see how the glaze reacts in different parts
of the kiln?
How do I prevent the glaze popping off the pots if I apply a glaze
this thick? Is 'slow" the keyword? (Ken Matsuzaki's shino takes 3 days
to climb up to 1250 C and it would be held there for 30 hours. The
firing down takes another 3 days.)
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions and input.
May
Lee
Quick note, off to NCC to glaze and load. I have had good luck
with Mino Shino. You can find it in John Britt's book. Here it is
online:
scroll down to high alumina.
Tony Clennel has had good luck just wiping on really thick shino, he
had drying out in the basement.
You can put more grog in your clay. If you want the clay to
be more like the traditional mogusa that is used with shino, you can
wedge in some fire clay. Mogusa does not vitrify at cone 13. It is
soft and the tea masters liked the body because the whisk in the bowl
made a similar sound as in raku. I am experimenting with straight
Ohio Fireclay. Will have some tests in this firing.
--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a
faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift." -- Albert Einstein
Mike
A traditional Shino is real simple, and real tough at the same time.
Simple because it's just spar, maybe with some kaolin, 5% or so, mixed
in. Everyone has their little tweaks, but it's safe to say it's mostly
(90%+)feldspar.
The thing is, if you want a shino that you can bring to Japan and have
the Shino guys acknowledge as Shino, you need that unevenly grained
spar. The way most people buy spars is in bags of 100+ mesh, nice evenly
ground material. I've had people tell me that it's not so much the type
of feldspar that's important, but the way it is processed, that is, the
grain size and variation thereof.
If you can find a nice weathered feldspar, sort of the spar version of
rotten granite, you don't even need to grind or pound it. Just kind of
stomp on it a little in a bag to break it up, sort out the larger pieces
of silica, toss them, and you have a glaze. Since we are not all so
lucky as to have a weathered feldspar deposit out there at our disposal.
Putting feldspar rocks into a stamp mill is the next best thing. A stamp
mill will give you uneven grain size. Most of the Shino feldspars, and
also Karatsu feldspar glaze (somewhat similar to Shino) feldspars are
stamped. In addition to the uneven particle size, you get particles that
are not rounded off, like ball milled spar. If you can't find a stamp
mill, find a big stone mortar, make a wooden stamping bar with a steel
head, and stamp it yourself. It's good exercise and builds up the
shoulders. :-) Actually, it's what I do with my found spars and clays.
The other thing is the clay. Most of the Shino/Oribe guys use mogusa, a
very refractory white, coarse clay with a bit of iron in it. Unfired it
looks somewhat flesh colored. There are a lot of clay companies that
make a body for Shino here. I used one for my fake shino experiments a
couple years back. It was ok for what it was, but it didn't have the
depth of color or trimmed texture that mogusa has. As a fake Shino, it
was good but I wouldn't want to call it a Shino. Not here in Shinoland
at least. Just be begging for one of those "Oh, isn't that nice" comments.
The last thing is the firing. Those long firings are important for the
color. Especially the long period of firing down and oxidation after the
initial reduction when firing up and holding. I've seen a few schedules
for gas fired Shino, and they were all over 90 hours long, with at least
one third of the firing being firing down in oxidation. This gives the
oranges and pinks. Ken san will also paint the interior of a saggar with
yellow ochre and put the pot right up next to it. In the long firing,
the iron on the saggar flashes pink on the surface of the pot.
As far as the glaze coming off the pot because of thickness. I've never
had this problem with my purely feldspar and porcelain stone glazes
(they're all stamped spars). Normally lacking in plasticity, they tend
to get 'sticky' because of the varying particle sizes. The other
advantage is they don't settle in the bucket like ball milled spars.
Even when thick, they stick to the clay body nicely. The one exception
is when I had an iron pigment which didn't have enough clay in it, and
all the glazes peeled back from the iron brushwork.
Hopefully Hank can chime in about firing Shinos. He's the one who
figured out that oxidation in firedown gives the nice reds.
Hope this mail helps, though after reading through everything again, I'm
realizing that it's like asking you to completely rethink your process.
As a parting shot, my fake Shino I borrowed from Lee. Neph Sye 6, Korean
Kaolin 4, with a dash of salt. Fired in a sealed saggar with charcoal
and got nice color and some luster. And fired just 16 hours. Pics below.
http://karatsupots.blogspot.com/2008/09/shino-exp-continued.html
Happy hunting,
Mike
Mike
in Taku, Japan
www.karatsupots.com
karatsupots.blogspot.com
karatsupots-nihongoban.blogspot.com/
karatsupots-workshop.blogspot.com/
May Luk ????????:
Lee
> As a parting shot, my fake Shino I borrowed from Lee. Neph Sye 6, Korean
> Kaolin 4, with a dash of salt. Fired in a sealed saggar with charcoal
> and got nice color and some luster. And fired just 16 hours. Pics below.
>
> http://karatsupots.blogspot.com/2008/09/shino-exp-continued.html
Firing in a kiln like Euan's design really helps, because it
cycles through oxidation. Euan and I independently realized, that
in a kiln that oxidizes like his design, you really need to up the
alumina. The shino Mike mentions doesn't look good in gas
firing. It looks like saggering helps.
The Mino shino I pointed to uses no clay. Instead, it uses
calcined, fine alumina oxide.
You can buy Custer Feldspar in rock form. Craig has
given me some (I need to return his rock crusher!) But you need
not mess with that. If you talk to a Japanese about your glaze, just
tell them it is an American feldspathic glaze. They are so close
minded about some things you really want to laugh at them. They
feak out if you call Indian Rice rice. Just tell them it is Indian
grain. Then they don't get their undies in a bunch.
Lee
does not bleach red.
The Mino Shino contains no salt or soda ash.
Des & Jan Howard
> I just wanted to add, salt bleaches out red color. Soda ash
> does not bleach red.
These contain no iron & 15% salt, soda feldspar,
alumina & kaolin over pale grey stoneware.
<http://www.luepottery.hwy.com.au/showroom.htm>
May 2009 pics
Des
--
Des & Jan Howard
Lue Pottery
Lue NSW
Australia
2850
02 6373 6419
www.luepottery.hwy.com.au
-32.656072 149.840624
Lee
>
> Lee wrote:
>> I just wanted to add, salt bleaches out red color. Soda ash
>> does not bleach red.
> Ain't necessarily so.
> These contain no iron & 15% salt, soda feldspar,
> alumina & kaolin over pale grey stoneware.
>
Typically it does. Especially when you are using a low
iron clay and glaze, as in the original
<http://www.luepottery.hwy.com.au/showroom.htm>
I don't see any surface reds here. There are two sources of color in
shinos, from below related to the body iron, and on the surface,
related to minute amounts of iron in the glaze. The surface red
comes from low amounts of red in a high alumina glaze. And no salt or
soda ash.
Also, as far as "fake" and "true" shinos go. True shino
was only made for about 60 years. Then it was "lost", only to be
independently revived in Japan and the West.
Lee
>inos, from below related to the body iron, and on the surface,
> related to minute amounts of iron in the glaze. The surface red
> comes from low amounts of red in a high alumina glaze. And no salt or
> soda ash.
>
OOps! this should read "low amounts of iron in high alumina glaze."
Salt does help shino crawl, which is nice.
craigl...@gmail.com
~Craig
>
>
> Hello all;
>
>
>
> I will have some wood firing opportunities coming up. This is 1 hour
>
> North of NYC and a pleasant ride on the train along the Hudson River
>
> and it is going to be nice. At any rate, I would like to think of some
>
> glaze test for my first wood-firing outing
>
>
>
> I would like to try to figure out the finger combing shino like Ken
>
Lee
> Hello May: It sounds like a wonderful opportunity, what sort of wood fired
> kiln will you be using? Does the owner of the kiln do shino?
That's always the best bet! What does the kiln owner use?
Hank Murrow
On Jul 20, 2009, at 12:34 AM, Des & Jan Howard wrote:
> Ain't necessarily so.
> These contain no iron & 15% salt, soda feldspar,
> alumina & kaolin over pale grey stoneware.
Good one, Des!
Cheers, Hank
Des & Jan Howard
We always set shino glazed pots well
away from ash-fall in our B-box kiln.
But, that well-ashed pulled pot is delicious!
Fire colour on a crash-cooled pot??
Des
Hank Murrow wrote:
> Shino from the anagama with lots of flyash...... 100 hour firing.
>
> Hank pulls a chawan from the sidestoke @ C13
Hank Murrow
On Jul 20, 2009, at 7:08 AM, Des & Jan Howard wrote:
> Hank
> We always set shino glazed pots well
> away from ash-fall in our B-box kiln.
> But, that well-ashed pulled pot is delicious!
> Fire colour on a crash-cooled pot??
No Des, that one stayed in the kiln the whole time........ very slow
cool.
Cheers, Hank
May Luk Ceramics
It is a "Cone 10/12 firings of his Anagama-Noborigama Wood-fire kiln
near Cold Spring, NY" and Shino is strongly recommended. The picture
of the kiln is at the bottom of the page:
http://www.tonymooreart.com/biography.html
I have been wanting to do Shino since I saw demonstrations and lecture
by Ken Matsuzaki at Aberyswyth, Wales in 2005.
I have just emailed the host Tony Moore for more information.
I like to make systematic glaze test from scratch and plan ahead. I
have also asked Tony if there's any local feldspar I can dig. I live
in the city, but I enjoy going to the Hudson River region for hiking.
Like I said, it is a very pleasant train journey along the river from
Grand Central station.
Many thanks for ALL the information, discussion and pictures so far.
May
On Jul 20, 9:17 am, craigledwa...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello May: It sounds like a wonderful opportunity, what sort of wood fired
> kiln will you be using? Does the owner of the kiln do shino?
>
> ~Craig
Lee
Japanese materials:
http://shinoglaze.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_archive.html
There is a Studio Potter issue with a good article on Shino glazes.
You can find some of the recipes at the link I provided previously to
John Britt's book.
Craig has gotten granular Nep Sye samples from Unim.
--